Google Base – off base with Jump pages

Robert Wilson over at the Job Search Engine Guide advised us on his blog today that Google quietly made their experimental “Jump Pages” that we spoke about here, OPTIONAL.
For a short amount of time, job seekers on Google Base would first land on a “jump page” containing “more details” about the job before they could continue on to the actual destination URL.

While most would see the removal of these pages as a good move – I had predicted that Google was heading in the direction of offering more of a yellow pages/directory product, utilizing the jump pages to upsell functionality such as mapping and video capabilities. Apparently I was wrong (or at least premature). After the whole NYTimes / JobCentral debacle – it seems to get harder everyday to predict how Google is planning to make money with their classified ads offering!